Reykjavík Grapevine - 05.05.2017, Blaðsíða 47

Books 46The Reykjavík GrapevineIssue 07 — 2017
Uncharted Waters
Emil Hjörvar Petersen boldly goes
where no one has gone before
Words: Björn Halldórsson Photo: Kristin Osk Ingvarsdottir
Emil Hjörvar Petersen published
the first book in his Saga of Survi-
vors trilogy in 2010. The trilogy is a
sci-fi/fantasy epic that follows the
exploits of the old Viking gods that
survived Ragnarok, the Asgardian
apocalypse. It basically made Emil a
one-man genre in the Icelandic pub-
lishing market.
“For many years I felt as if I was
on my own,” he reminisces now.
“Some days I was filled with con-
fidence; didn't care what anyone
thought and was glad to be free to
write whatever I wanted, not stop-
ping to consider whether I was
driven by an urge to create high
art or entertainment, but freely
mixing the two. Other days I felt
as if I was fighting a losing battle.”
Emil explains that Iceland-
ers can be hesitant to try new
things and that, for a long time,
Icelandic publishers doubted
that there was any readership
for speculative fiction. It led to
authors not daring to try their
hand at the genre. “At this sort of
an impasse,” says Emil, “change
needs to come from the fringe—
from those able to take chances.”
This change has been a grad-
ual process. “The larger pub-
lishers are still being cautious,”
Emil says, “publishing works
of speculative fiction under the
guise of young adult or teen fic-
tion. There’s still very little sci-fi
or fantasy being published in Ice-
landic that's aimed specifically
at adults, aside from my own.”
Cli-fi
In addition to the Survivors tril-
ogy, Emil recently published a new
thriller entitled 'Víghólar' that
mixes elements of Nordic noir
with urban fantasy. For him, writ-
ing in a language that has little to
no tradition of the fantasy genre
offers some unique challenges.
“Iceland's speculative fiction tra-
dition is so recent,” he explains,
“so some of the necessary vocabu-
lary for the genre is not in place.
I often have to hunt down old
words, or create new ones. When
it comes to the Icelandic language,
fantasy and sci-fi writing are un-
charted waters, linguistically.”
Despite being something of an
oddity on the publishing market,
Emil has high hopes for the bur-
geoning genre. “I'm no prophet,”
he smiles, “but my hope is that
Icelandic speculative fiction of
the future will focus on environ-
mental matters. Climate change
and environmental protection
has been prominent in specula-
tive fiction in the past few years,
and has even gained the moniker
‘climate fiction’ or ‘cli-fi.’ It seems
as if many people today don't re-
alise how urgent a matter pro-
tecting the environment is, the
dangers that we are inflicting on
future generations. Authors of
speculative fiction can raise their
concerns on these matters. At the
same time, I’d like to see Icelandic
speculative fiction authors tackle
our cultural heritage from differ-
ent angles, seeking more unortho-
dox uses of the folklore in their
fiction, as well as stories that have
nothing to do with Icelandic cul-
tural heritage. The concept of Ice-
land doesn't necessarily have to be
at the centre of Icelandic spec-fic.
Still, it is obvious that Icelandic
speculative fiction is here to stay.”
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Two Books
Jar City & Dreamland
Words: Björn Halldórsson
Each issue, we take a look at two
Icelandic titles old and new, avail-
able in English translation at most
Reykjavík bookstores. If you’d like
more ideas, or to read more on
Icelandic literature, head over
to gpv.is/lit for in-depth author
interviews, guides, and more
book reviews.
Arnaldur Indriðason –
Jar City
Published in the year 2000, ‘Jar
City’ was an outrider for the ex-
plosion of Icelandic crime nov-
els which hold such a prominent
place in the country's publishing
industry today. It wasn’t the first
Icelandic crime novel, nor was
it the first appearance of the au-
thor's most famous character—
the sour-faced Detective Erlendur,
who had already taken the lead in
two novels that remain unavail-
able in English. However, this
novel is where Arnaldur found his
stride, inserting the crime fiction
genre into Icelandic culture with a
tightly wound plot, strong charac-
ters, and a cold and succinct writ-
ing style that echoes the grittiness
and attention to detail of Derek
Raymond.
Andri Snær Magnason –
Dreamland: A Self-Help
Manual for a Frightened
Nation
Published just before the financial
crash in 2007, ‘Dreamland’ arrived
at a crucial time in Iceland’s his-
tory. Icelanders were in the midst of
an identity crisis after the collapse
of their economy—it was a time of
immediate historical revisionism,
when everyone was searching for a
simple scapegoat or explanation for
the country's position at the centre
of the worldwide financial melt-
down. Through essays tackling top-
ics such as environmentalism, local
politics and more, the book sets out
to explore the state of the recently
urbanised Icelander and their con-
nection to their nation, to nature, to
other Icelanders, and the rest of the
world. The results are a profound
document that explores a difficult
time, still so close to the present
that viewing it in perspective is a
hefty chore.
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